Employees want to feel valued. You want to keep your employees satisfied, engaged in their roles, and with your company for the long haul. According to a Gallup poll, employees who are engaged are 59% less likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months.

Consistent and helpful communications make employees feel a part of the team. Forty-eight percent rated transparent communication as something that makes them feel like they belong at work. Communications can help you retain the best and brightest employees if you meet their information needs. Here are some tips to help you do that.

Create Trust with Transparency

If you want employees who are invested in their jobs, you’ll need open and honest communication. We no longer live in an age where companies push out only self-serving information. To engage with employees, you need their trust and two-way communications build that trust.

What are employees’ concerns? What suggestions do they have to improve company culture? The best way to find out is to ask. Make sure to set the stage and the expectations appropriately. After all, you don’t want to invite feedback you’re not able to do anything about. Conduct focus groups where workers can talk in a safe and confidential setting. This will make them feel like their opinions count and engage them in any changes.

Make sure to act on employees’ comments. Send follow-up communications to let them know how they’ll be used and what you plan to do with the information. That way, they’ll feel like you take seriously. In turn, employees will put more trust in the messages you push out through other corporate communications.

You want to be transparent in your communications. Don’t sugar coat messages that may not resonate well with employees. This is another way to engender their trust. Be thoughtful and diplomatic, but honest. Transparency shows you trust your staff. Treat them with respect and they are more inclined to stay. Above board communications will improve your employee retention.

Take Their Pulse

Employees want to be heard. Learn what communications channels reach them most effectively. And, if you’re not sure, ask. Survey them on what they’d like to know and then give it to them. Use different media to meet them where they are. Keep in mind that you’ll likely have to create different communications strategies and tactics for different preferences and learning styles. Why create a desk drop flyer if Employee A throws it out? Why craft a well-worded email if Employee B deletes it? If you respect employee’s listening and learning styles, it shows you value them.

How you frame a message is just as important as how you deliver it. Be thoughtful about engaging employees from the outset. Make dry topics more interesting by putting the “What’s In It For Me” at the top. Since employees are individuals with their own needs and goals, they’ll be most engaged when you lead with what the message means for them.

Show employees you care about their input on content matters. Survey your workforce on what type of company news they want to hear. Maybe they are curious about what’s happening in another department. Maybe they want to know more about the broader industry. Take their pulse on communication needs and they will be more likely to pay attention.

Timing and Recognition Matter

With a well-thought out employee communications plan, you show you trust and value your staff. Employees want to know how their assignments help the company meet its goals. In fact, employees who feel their work doesn’t contribute to overall business goals are more likely to leave.

Communicate with workers outside of the annual performance review. Send a simple “you go!” email when someone completes a difficult project. Praise employees’ efforts and use messaging as a motivational tool to retain the best and brightest employees.

However, you must watch the frequency of your employee communications. Send too many and the most important messages risk getting lost in the shuffle. You don’t want workers to automatically tune out when another company announcement pops up in their in-box and interrupts their work flow.

Be strategic and stagger communications. Create a calendar for your messages for the upcoming year. Take into account periods with lots of vacation time and the busy season when employees are highly focused on their assignments. Use analytics to track open rates for emails and plan accordingly. If no one is reads messages on Monday mornings, it’s time to send on a new day.

Employees want to be heard and they want to receive messages that will help them do their jobs. Effective communications are one tool to help you retain the best and brightest.

Written by Danielle Love

Danielle is a benefits communications specialist, working on behalf of clients to write, edit and design dynamic print and virtual communications. She also manages the Trion Communications blog, which highlights the practice’s diverse areas of expertise.

There’s a good chance your company already gives employees the option to work from home. Telecommuting has exploded in recent years in the United States. In 2017, 43% of U.S. workers said they telecommute at least occasionally.

In many cases, work-from-home programs are good for both employers and employees. A recent Stanford study shows that employees who work from home are more productive. They also take fewer breaks, vacation days, and sick days. These are great benefits, but they’ll only be fully realized if employers clearly establish some ground rules with employees. The key to an effective telecommuting program, then, is the key to almost every successful workplace policy: Effective communication.

Here are four ways you can use communications to make sure that everyone sees the benefits of a successful work-from-home program. These strategies will help you engage employees who telecommute.

1. Communicate the benefits of telecommute program

For any new office initiative to be successful, you need buy-in from your employees. Working from home may seem like the holy grail of workplace perks for some personality types. Yet others may feel lonely and unsure without an office or co-workers who form a ready-made community. You might need extra effort to engage employees who telecommute.

Promote the benefits of the program in a way that appeals to all working styles and preferences. Stay focused on the “What’s In it For Them” and not how the program could to save the company money. For example, let them know by cutting out their daily commute to and from the office, there’s a good chance that they will see some real health benefits.

2. Provide employees with the information they need to create a productive work space at home

Emphasize they don’t necessarily need a separate space to use exclusively when they telecommute. Many people can work comfortably at their dining room table or on their back porch. What’s important is that they have the information to create the right environment to get work done. Share a checklist of items that create that optimal work space. This could include a reliable internet connection, a dedicated work phone, and an ergonomic chair and desk for comfort and health.

3. Promote ways for them to get the most of the experience, while meeting expectations

It is absolutely crucial that you lay out clear expectations for your employees before they begin to work remotely. For example, explain while you don’t expect them to be chained to their computer all day, they should be available to you and their coworkers just as much as they would be in the office. Send them regular communications so they stay on top of what’s happening at the office. Promote tips and tricks for them to get the most out of telecommuting experience and grow in their jobs and careers.

4. Schedule regular face-to-face check-ins

Keeping tabs on your employees is the best way to address workplace issues as they arise. That’s true in an office environment, and even more so in a remote work situation. Regular one-one-one video chats foster the kind of connection you’d have with your employees if you were both in the same, physical office. Remote workers feel more connected to their team. Managers can use these conversations to engage employees who telecommute. If it’s feasible, I also recommend regular in-person meetings with whole your team together in the office.

Communicate the benefits of a work-from-home program effectively. You’ll maximize productivity and help your employees strike an ideal work/life balance. These four tips should help you use effective communication to make sure your company’s telecommute program is a success.

Written by Jack Evans

Jack is an experienced marketing professional who specializes in custom benefits communications. In addition to contributing to the Trion Communications blog, Jack works with Trion clients to create mixed media communications packages that clearly explain and highlight the advantages of the client’s benefit offerings for their employees.